Last week, the BBC revealed the Denton Universal Award - the largest single source of public art funding in the UK. Its purpose is refreshingly simple and radical: to fund free, accessible works of art that anyone can visit, without tickets, barriers, or gatekeepers.
The first recipient is Andy Goldsworthy , awarded £200,000 to create Gravestones , a new public artwork in the hills of Dumfries and Galloway. Built from thousands of stones displaced during grave digging, the work will form a stark, 25-metre square enclosure - a place for mourning, remembrance, and quiet reflection.
It’s not art made to be owned.
It’s art made to be
visited
.
And, more importantly,
felt
.
Goldsworthy’s work has always existed outside the traditional white-cube economy. He works with land, weather, time, and impermanence. In his own words, he has spent much of his career “outside” the art world - not out of defiance, but out of belief that art belongs in the world, not just in it.
That belief sits at the heart of this new award. As Lucy Brown of the Hugo Burge Foundation explains, public art once played a central role in civic life. Artists like Hepworth and Moore were commissioned to create works that lived alongside communities. Over time, that culture faded - replaced by commercial pressures, institutional bottlenecks and increasingly narrow definitions of success.
The Denton Universal Award is a course correction.
And it’s one worth paying attention to.
At LettsArt, we exist for a similar reason.
We believe art shouldn’t have to pass through layers of permission to matter.
We believe artists shouldn’t need to be “chosen” to be visible.
And we believe the relationship between artist and audience should be direct, human, and owned by the artist.
Goldsworthy’s Gravestones isn’t about sales, likes or visibility metrics. It’s about meaning, place and connection - values that are often lost when art is filtered through marketplaces, algorithms, or institutional approval.
That’s exactly why LettsArt is software, not a platform.
We don’t tell artists where to show up.
We don’t decide what gets promoted.
We don’t sit between you and your audience.
Instead, we give artists and gallerists the tools to create their own space - to present work on their terms, build a following and connect directly with the people who care about what they make.
There’s something deeply grounding about Goldsworthy’s approach. Stones removed from graves. Returned to the land. Reassembled with care. Made accessible to anyone willing to walk the hill.
It reminds us that art doesn’t need permission to exist - it just needs the right conditions.
The Denton Universal Award is creating those conditions in physical space.
LettsArt is doing the same in digital space.
Different mediums. Same belief.
Art belongs to the artist.
And, when done right, it belongs to everyone.
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T o sign up to LettsArt (it’s FREE!) go to www.LettsArt.com .
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The Denton Universal Award is a new annual public art prize funding free, publicly accessible artworks across the UK. It is the largest single source of public art funding in Britain.
Andy Goldsworthy was selected for his lifelong practice of creating accessible, landscape-based artworks that connect people, place, and meaning beyond traditional gallery spaces.
Both the award and LettsArt remove barriers to art. The award supports free public art in physical spaces, while LettsArt gives artists and gallerists the tools to share and control their work digitally, without gatekeepers.
